I published this blog from 2003 to 2008.

Maintaining it doubled as a means to keep up with server, web, and publishing technologies. Over time it migrated from Movable Type, to Wordpress, to Django, back to Wordpress, to Jekyll and Ruhoh, to Hakyll, and back to Jekyll — with unpublished attempts in Ghost and Hexo.

These were written when I was (obviously) much younger; but also, when the web was younger too. Much of it now strikes me as naive. Even more may strike you as naive, if you read these though as though they were written today. For context, this was written before the terms “single-page application” and “AJAX” existed (and before the concepts were in common use). The earlier posts predate jQuery, and its predecessor Scriptaculous. For much of this time, I was working on the Laszlo Presentation Server, which became OpenLaszlo, and was an early alternate-history exploration of these ideas, as well as data binding and reactive web programming. It was far from clear that JavaScript would evolve to become a software engineering language, or gain support for functional programming.

Popular posts included The IDE Divide and Overloading Semicolon.

Posts that failed to make a splash include Service Clients (an early attempt to describe what was later named AJAX), and Rethinking MVC (an early attempt to describe what was later named MVVM).

The illustrations in my My Git Workflow have been adapted (with permission) and improved many times. You can find better versions, including interactive versions, elsewhere on the web.

Posts

• Stroop: A Card Game Sep 8, 2012 A card game
• DLW Sep 7, 2012 RIP DLW
• Code Samples from Practical Functional JavaScript Oct 2, 2008 Code samples from my 2008 Functional JavaScript talk
• Practical Functional JavaScript Sep 24, 2008 My Functional Javascript talk
• Latin Agreement and Case May 25, 2008 A poster about case and agreement in Latin
• Commit Policies May 10, 2008 This stuff's in lots of git books these days
• My Git Workflow May 9, 2008 This stuff's in lots of git books these days
• My No TV May 9, 2008 Written before computers became TV’s too
• The Biofuel Economy May 9, 2008 Does biofuel raise the cost of food? No analysis, just a picture.
• Ambimation May 1, 2008 An ambigram set to flash
• jQuery Profile Plugin May 1, 2008 Nowadays the browser developer consoles do this
• Minimizing Code Paths in Asynchronous Code Apr 20, 2008 If a function might sometimes defer a callback, it should always defer the callback
• A Mock for {set,clear}{Timeout,Interval} Apr 20, 2008 Modern test libraries do this
• Conquering the Busy Cursor with Sequentially Apr 20, 2008 Nowadays I use Promises for things like this
• DB Content Rails Plugin Apr 17, 2008 A Rake database plugin.
• JCON: Ruby Gem for JSON type conformance Apr 17, 2008 A library to test web apps JSON against a schema
• Three Small JavaScript Libraries Apr 15, 2008 Some meta-ish libraries from when I was doing lots of JavaScript
• JavaScript Fu Rails Plugin Apr 14, 2008 Some syntax for using JavaScript with Rails
• FlashBridge: proxying Flash and OpenLaszlo Apr 13, 2008 This was kind of cool when Flash was still a useful web technology
• FizzBuzz Station Feb 28, 2008 My try at golfing
• Synchronizing Client Models Feb 27, 2008 A certain race condition from when client-server model sync was a fresh problem.
• More Monads on the Cheap: Inlined fromMaybe Feb 26, 2008 CoffeeScript builds this in
• Self-Printing JavaScript Literals Feb 15, 2008 A JavaScript print library — from before web developer consoles
• Supply/Demand Springs Feb 7, 2008 Visualizing supply and demand (illustration)
• Knowledge Per Unit Time Feb 5, 2008 Good people know a lot for their age
• Two Thoughts on Elections Feb 5, 2008 Some thoughts on voting systems
• Adding the Easy Piece; or, The Metaphor of the Rock Feb 2, 2008 A correct but ineffective argument for putting off things that slow you down and can be done cheaply later
• Getting Lost Jan 24, 2008 Frontloading risks when they're cheap
• Why Write Open Source Libraries Jan 24, 2008 Some advantages of open source hobby projects
• What Every Programmer Needs to Know About Category Theory Jan 17, 2008 A lame joke
• The Programmer’s Food Pyramid Jan 17, 2008 Programmers should read to learn how to write (with picture)
• What I didn’t get to Dec 31, 2007 Some projects I didn't finish in 2007
• Monads on the Cheap I: The Maybe Monad Dec 16, 2007 An idiom that CoffeeScript’s existential operator replaces
• Overloading Semicolon, or, monads from 10,000 Feet Dec 2, 2007 My Monad tutorial, back (2007) before these became quite so much a thing
• Sequentially: Temporal and Frequency Adverbs for JavaScript Nov 24, 2007 Fun library; these days I uses Promises instead
• Functional Javascript 1.0.2 Nov 11, 2007 Functional JavaScript update
• Marvin’s Cake Aug 11, 2007 Marvin's Minsky's Infinity cake
• Functional JavaScript Jul 21, 2007 Functional JavaScript library
• Division-free LCM Jul 8, 2007 An algorithm I invented(?)
• One-Line JavaScript Memoization Apr 16, 2006 Early JavaScript memoization code
• Wide URLs with WideURL.com Apr 1, 2006 An April first site.
• A Functional Diversion Mar 23, 2006 Joke site
• JavaScript Gradient Roundrects Mar 23, 2006 My roundrect library from before CSS had this
• Inline JavaScript Console Mar 3, 2006 Portable JavaScript developer console — from before browsers had web developer consoles
• Readable JavaScript Values Mar 3, 2006 Another JavaScript debugging library from before browers had web developer consoles
• Canvas with Text Feb 27, 2006 Library for overlaying text on an HTML5 canvas — from before canvas had drawText
• Javascript Beziers Feb 26, 2006 Javascript Bezier library
• reWork: an online workbench for regular expressions Feb 23, 2006 Regular expression web workbench — now defunct
• JSON for OpenLaszlo Feb 20, 2006 My JSON library for OpenLaszlo
• Visualizing Regular Expressions Feb 19, 2006 Visualizing regular expressions as NFA’s and DFA’s
• “Stretch” Languages, or, 28 years of programming Feb 5, 2006 Timeline of languages in my life
• Visualizing Subversion Project Activity Jan 31, 2006 Subversion web gui — defect
• Fortunately Jan 31, 2006 Fun (defunct) site I wrote based on the Remy Charlip book
• Expialidocio.us Jan 8, 2006 Deliciou.us tag visualization site I build once
• OpenLaszlo Ruby library Jan 5, 2006 Announcing a library for using OpenLaszlo with Ruby
• Aargh! Dec 24, 2005 Using Google to compare spelling frequencies
• Adding Fractions Dec 18, 2005 Visualizing adding fractions
• PackageMapper Dec 18, 2005 A package-tracking site I built some weekend
• Grief Dec 9, 2005 RIP Max Steele
• Second grade squares Dec 8, 2005 Visualizing how to solve a simple math problem
• OpenLaszlo Blog Nov 11, 2005 Announcing the OpenLaszlo blog
• OpenLaszlo software development position open Apr 11, 2005 Job post
• Wasting Time with Laszlo Apr 3, 2005 Responding to something or other
• PyCon 2005 Apr 2, 2005 My PyCon 2005 talk
• Laszlo Mail Mar 8, 2005 Laszlo’s web mail product
• Ruby and Laszlo Mar 8, 2005 Announcing a library for using Rails with OpenLaszlo
• Laszlo’s Boston Office Mar 7, 2005 Laszlo’s Boston office
• Three Lefts Make a Right: The Type Declaration Paradox Jan 3, 2005 Comments versus type declarations
• The Type Declaration Compromise Dec 31, 2004 Manifest typing has a hidden cost
• Visualizing Basic Algebra Dec 5, 2004 Visualizing basic algebra
• Serving Client-Side Applications Dec 5, 2004 AJAX, before it was a thing
• The Apple Boutique Nov 27, 2004 Apple avoids the choice paradox
• Multi-tiered Turkey Consumption Nov 25, 2004 Thanksgiving joke, I guess
• The IDE Divide Nov 21, 2004 The hidden cost of using an IDE
• IDE4Laszlo Nov 18, 2004 OpenLaszlo plugin for Eclipse
• Constraint Diagrams Oct 10, 2004 Some pictures to represent the way I think about things
• Open Laszlo Oct 5, 2004 Announcing OpenLaszlo becoming open source
• Better Living Through Bigger Text Sep 21, 2004 This one weird trick gives you longer battery life
• The Novell Virus Sep 12, 2004 Kids say the funniest things
• Responsive Interfaces and Effective People Sep 11, 2004 “Responsive” didn't mean then what it means now
• Becoming Lisp Sep 10, 2004 Python’s getting more like Lisp
• Refactoring for Fifth Graders Sep 8, 2004 Rambling about elementary school programming
• Tablehood Watch Sep 7, 2004 “Will you watch this for me?”
• There They’re Sep 5, 2004 Some of the more confusable common English spellings
• Web MVC Aug 27, 2004 Comparing MVC and RIA architectures
• XML Schema Versioning with RELAX NG Aug 20, 2004 A proposal for XML schema versioning
• Aspect-Oriented Programming with mod_rewrite Aug 17, 2004 Htaccess approximates AOP
• Unqualified Imports for XML Aug 4, 2004 An import system for XML-based languages
• What’s in a Namespace? Aug 2, 2004 Namespacing for XML
• A Fresh Canvas Jul 25, 2004 How we defined tags in OpenLaszlo XML
• PyWordNet 2.0 Apr 19, 2004 Announcing PyWordNet 2.0
• Ingrediants and Isochems Apr 4, 2004 A couple of nonce words
• Instance-First Development Mar 28, 2004 Defining XML-based view components in OpenLaszlo
• Optimizing for Broadband Mar 27, 2004 A lot of work to make web applications faster
• Re-count Oct 13, 2003 Another voting system essay
• The Virtual Computer Company Oct 4, 2003 Xerox vs. Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Dell
• Laszlo Booklist Application Oct 3, 2003 An OpenLaszlo app I wrote
• Before Teletext Sep 2, 2003 Henry Minsky’s teletype hack
• A Taxonomy of Comments Aug 31, 2003 Some different uses for programming language comments
• Test versus Type Aug 20, 2003 The hidden cost of manifest typing
• Dot Numbers Aug 14, 2003 An alternative pedagogical representation for negative numbers
• Laszlo Blogging Widget Aug 8, 2003 An early data-binding app
• Rethinking MVC Aug 4, 2003 This was reinvented as MVVC
• myLaszlo.com Aug 1, 2003 Before jsfiddler
• Hard Questions Jul 26, 2003 Some questions my kids asked me
• The Other OO Jul 26, 2003 Learning from the military
• In Memoriam: Instant Update Jul 23, 2003 Before Spotlight
• Birthday Numerology Jul 11, 2003 How many different times you can be twice someone's age
• Semiotics of Weddings Jul 10, 2003 Idling on thinking about the meaning of weddings
• Nobody’s On That Train Jun 23, 2003 Grammar and sexism
• Pretty-Printing wth XSLT Jun 22, 2003 My largest XSLT program
• Alternate Syntaxes for XML Jun 22, 2003 JSON and YAML came along and did this.
• Behr Color Center Jun 21, 2003 Behr paint’s use of Laszlo
• Most Fun I’ve Ever Had Jun 21, 2003 Most fun I’ve ever had
• Disney World Jun 15, 2003 Appreciating Disney World
• Newer Math Jun 1, 2003 Appreciating math education.
• Provenance May 26, 2003 I wish pundits came with this too.
• Moblesse Oblige May 26, 2003 Comcast forces this now
• Welcome Sarah Allen! May 24, 2003 Sarah Allen joins Laszlo
• Fenceposts, Benzene, and Euler May 23, 2003 Some math connections
• The Semantic Depths May 16, 2003 When RDF looked feasible
• Designing a Language May 13, 2003 Thoughts on designing a programming language
• The DSL Tower May 7, 2003 DSLs
• Joining Laszlo May 5, 2003 Joining Laszlo
• Declarative Directions May 4, 2003 Two ways to give directions
• ETech Apr 24, 2003 O’Reilly E-Tech 2003
• Moving Online Apr 19, 2003 First post

subscribe via RSS